Report: Cocaine number one hard drug in SC

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) From "Miami Vice" to Hollywood parties, cocaine was the it drug during the 1980s. But a WMBF News investigation is revealing it's still a big problem in South Carolina.

Even for someone who's able to use cocaine and keep their job and home, chasing that high can still come at a high cost.

"The people that are financially stable and still have drug problems are not quite seen as bad off as people that come through my doors that have lost everything," said Myrtle Beach drug counselor Spencer Josey.

But even those who just use cocaine to "party" may eventually find their family torn apart.

"A father absent from the home, is a father absent from the home," said Josey. "You know, it doesn't matter if he's out doing drugs or if he's at work or if he's running around. A father gone is a father gone."

And that is why Josey tries to find out what the emotional and genetic issues are that cause his Grand Strand patients to snort the powder form of cocaine or smoke from a crack pipe.

Seven percent of drug abusers seeking help in South Carolina are addicted to crack or cocaine, according to 2010 figures from the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.

It is the number one hard drug, by far.

Judith Grotenhuis, a drug counselor at the Wilmington Treatment Center of Myrtle Beach, is noticing a dangerous trend, too.

"We are still getting cocaine abusers," she said. "And we're also getting people that are using both cocaine and heroin, which is a thing called speedball. And that in combination is very dangerous. That's the thing that killed Chris Farley and John Belushi because in combination it's really lethal."

For his part, Spencer Josey really does believe cocaine addiction is a disease caused by a problem with the "wiring" in the brain.

He says the addict is chasing the effects of dopamine.

"And a lot of that is naturally released in our bodies [such as when] we have sex or maybe when we fill our bellies with food," he said. "So you can see the power of that at the survival part of our brain."

Cocaine may be the number one hard drug in South Carolina but, according to state figures, 59% of people seeking treatment in 2010 in this state were actually addicted to alcohol.

Fire crews battled two-story house fire at 3293 West Highway 76 Monday morning. According to an online post from the Marion Rural Fire Department, the first crews on scene reported light smoke coming from the house.

Fire crews battled two-story house fire at 3293 West Highway 76 Monday morning. According to an online post from the Marion Rural Fire Department, the first crews on scene reported light smoke coming from the house.

The trailer was stolen between March 4 and March 6 from Cooper Construction (Source: HCPD Facebook)

The trailer was stolen between March 4 and March 6 from Cooper Construction (Source: HCPD Facebook)

The Horry County Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a stolen construction trailer. According to an online posting from HCPD, the trailer was stolen between March 4 and March 6 from Cooper Construction on Highway 90 in Longs.

The Horry County Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a stolen construction trailer. According to an online posting from HCPD, the trailer was stolen between March 4 and March 6 from Cooper Construction on Highway 90 in Longs.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

Officials reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s who were hospitalized with injuries that didn't appear to be life-threatening.

(Joe Ahlquist/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP). Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a fatal stabbing Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Salvation Army Castleview Residence in downtown Rochester, Minn. Police have arrested a man in the multiple...

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.

Conway parents were arrested for unlawful neglect of a child after their baby was allegedly thrown from his car seat, according to a police report from Horry County Police. 20-year-old Juliana Biggerstaff and 22-year-old Jacob Lowman were arrested on Thursday after a complainant called police. Officers responded to a residence on Woodwinds Drive in Conway on March 14. Upon arrival, officers located a baby boy with a “visible injury to the top of his h...

Conway parents were arrested for unlawful neglect of a child after their baby was allegedly thrown from his car seat, according to a police report from Horry County Police. 20-year-old Juliana Biggerstaff and 22-year-old Jacob Lowman were arrested on Thursday after a complainant called police. Officers responded to a residence on Woodwinds Drive in Conway on March 14. Upon arrival, officers located a baby boy with a “visible injury to the top of his h...